August 24th, 2014

Yesterday the WaPo featured a wordy piece devoted to Darren Wilson’s dysfunctional family of origin, and the racial and other problems in the police force he used to work for, difficulties that seem to have had nothing whatsoever to do with him. As William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection says, it’s guilt by association.

Then, in a lengthy article published the very next day (today), the WaPotells us what a great guy Michael Brown was.

From yesterday’s article:

…[E]veryone leaves a record, and Darren Dean Wilson is no exception.

People who know him describe him as someone who grew up in a home marked by multiple divorces and tangles with the law. His mother died when he was in high school. A friend said a career in law enforcement offered him structure in what had been a chaotic life.

What he found in Jennings, however, was a mainly white department mired in controversy and notorious for its fraught relationship with residents, especially the African American majority. It was not an ideal place to learn how to police. Officials say Wilson kept a clean record without any disciplinary action…

Wilson has had some recent personal turmoil: Last year, he petitioned the court seeking a divorce from his wife, Ashley Nicole Wilson, and they formally split in November, records show…

His parents divorced in 1989, when he was 2 or 3 years old…His mother then married Tyler Harris, and they lived in Elgin, Tex., for a time, records show. Tyler and Tonya Harris had a child named Jared.

The family later moved to the suburban Missouri town of St. Peters, where Wilson’s mother again got divorced and married a man named Dan Durso, records indicate.

Wilson attended St. Charles West High School, in a predominantly white, middle-class community west of the Missouri River. He played junior varsity hockey for the West Warriors but wasn’t a standout.

There were problems at home. In 2001, when Wilson was a freshman in high school, his mother pleaded guilty to forgery and stealing. She was sentenced to five years in prison, although records suggest the court agreed to let her serve her sentence on probation.

She died of natural causes in November 2002, when Wilson was 16, records show. His stepfather, Tyler Harris, took over as his limited guardian, which ended when the boy turned 18…

After going through the police academy, Wilson landed a job in 2009 as a rookie officer in Jennings, a small, struggling city of 14,000 where 89 percent of the residents were African American and poverty rates were high. At the time, the 45-employee police unit had one or two black members on the force, said Allan Stichnote, a white Jennings City Council member.

Racial tension was endemic in Jennings, said Rodney Epps, an African American city council member.

“You’re dealing with white cops, and they don’t know how to address black people,” Epps said. “The straw that broke the camel’s back, an officer shot at a female. She was stopped for a traffic violation. She had a child in the back [of the] car and was probably worried about getting locked up. And this officer chased her down Highway 70, past city limits, and took a shot at her. Just ridiculous.”…

Police faced a series of lawsuits for using unnecessary force [the article then goes on to describe this]…

The Jennings department also had a corruption problem. A joint federal and local investigation discovered that a lieutenant had been accepting federal funds for drunken-driving checks that never happened.

All the problems became too much for the city council to bear, and in March 2011 the council voted 6-to-1 to shut down the department…

The article goes on and on; you have to read the whole thing to get its full flavor. When it deals with the Ferguson incident itself, there is no mention of Brown’s robbery of the convenience store or his getting physical there or the fact that star witness Dorian Johnson was present at the robbery, has a previous record (including a history of lying to the police about an earlier alleged offense) and therefore had a strong motivation to lie in his tale of what happened when Brown was shot. WaPo reporters Carol D. Leonnig, Kimberly Kindy and Joel Achenbach merely describe Johnson’s version versus the police version as “competing narratives.”

Family and friends recall a young man built like a lineman — 6-foot-3, nearly 300 pounds — with a gentle, joking manner. An aspiring rapper who dubbed himself “Big Mike.” A fan of computer games, Lil Wayne, Drake, the movie, “Grown Ups 2” and the TV show “Family Guy.” A kid who was good at fixing things. A struggling student who buckled down to finish his courses, don his green graduation gown with red sash and cross the stage in August to pick up his diploma…

Kennedy became acquainted with Brown while running a credit recovery program the young man was enrolled in that allowed him to catch up so he could graduate with his class. Brown, he says, could be led astray by kids who were bad influences but by spring, he became focused on getting his degree.

Kennedy also would bring in recording equipment Brown could use for rapping — he wanted to perform and learn a trade to help support himself. “His biggest goal was to be part of something,” the teacher adds. “He didn’t like not knowing where to fit in life. … He was kind-hearted, a little kid in a big body. He was intimidating looking, but I don’t think he ever was disrespectful to me.”

Brown loved music even as a young child. Ophelia Troupe, his art teacher for five years in elementary school, remembers a reserved, polite little boy — he’d always respond “yes ma’am” or “no ma’am.” He kept to himself but lit up when she’d play her son’s beats — which make up the backbone of hip-hop and rap songs — in class as a reward if the students behaved.

Unlike the piece on Wilson, the profile of Brown at least manages to mention the convenience store robbery. This is the way it describes it:

Slightly more than a week later, Brown was shot while walking down the street with a friend. Police have said a scuffle broke out with Officer Darren Wilson after he asked the two young men to move. Some witnesses have reported seeing Brown’s arms in the air — an act of surrender. An autopsy concluded he’d been shot at least six times.

Ferguson police identified Wilson at the same time they released a video of an alleged theft showing Brown snatch some cigars in a convenience store just minutes before he was killed. In the video, Brown is shown grabbing a clerk by the shirt and forcefully pushing him into a display rack.

Brown’s family angrily denounced that video as character assassination.

They’ve portrayed Brown as “a gentle giant,” who liked to post photos on his Facebook page of himself with young relatives, a kid who tried football his sophomore year but abandoned the idea before his first game, fearing he might hurt someone.

“He was funny, silly,” his father, Michael Brown Sr., recently said. “Any problems that were going on or any situation — there wasn’t nothing he couldn’t solve. He’d bring people together.”

Tim Sneed, a 23-year-old neighbor of Brown’s grandmother, says the young man was so low-key he seemed almost invisible. “When he came to my house you wouldn’t even notice he was there,” he says. “That’s how quiet he was.”

Brown had been staying at the apartment of his grandmother, Desuirea Harris, this summer. She said Brown was excited about his future.

“My grandson never even got into a fight,” she says. “He was just looking forward to getting on with his life. He was on his way.”

Brown was preparing to attend Vatterott College, where he planned to study to become a heating and air-conditioning technician.

I do not fault Brown’s grieving family for speaking well of him, although the description of a video as “character assassination” is a case of “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”. I do fault the reporters for presenting such carefully-selected “narratives,’ digging up every bit of dirt possible on Wilson (and since they can hardly find any, on his family instead) and every bit of good possible on Brown.

No one seems to have looked into the marital (or any other) history of Brown’s family, or whether any relatives have arrest records. And rightly so, because it really doesn’t matter; what matters is Brown’s history.

But why, then, is the divorce of Wilson’s parents and their other history considered fair game, and not that of Brown’s parents or relatives? After all, Brown had a mother and stepfather, and a biological father whose name is Michael Brown Sr., so we can conclude that some sort of divorce/separation and upheaval occurred. But it’s virtually never mentioned, either in the AP article or in any other article I’ve been able to locate after doing some quick Googling. Nor is the history of any other family member of Brown discussed; all I could find of any relevance to family history was that the 18-year-old Brown was living with his grandmother for the summer, although we don’t really know why.

The contrast in the coverage is stark, and purposeful. “Competing narratives” indeed.

This is an interesting example of journalistic malfeasance. It doesn’t matter whether Darren Wilson was acting within the law, he is already judged guilty. He will be destroyed, the only question is which branch of government will carry out the verdict.

I keep thinking of the dinosaur media’s agenda. If it does not fit the narrative, we will ignore, re-write and make up what it needs to make it fit. A three hundred pound young man, who just strong armed a theft is made to seem pure as the driven snow. The law enforcement officer has a troubled past and must have something to do with his rage. Never mind he just had his orbital socket broken, he must be at fault.

From the beginning of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman affair, I read extensively about it. I am spending much less time reading about the Ferguson/Brown/Wilson affair, after I saw that many of the same suspects were involved. Such as Al Sharpton, that paragon of integrity. After the libel judgment, and his subsequent involvement in fomenting racial conflict, it is a fair conclusion that anything Al Sharpton touches is tainted.

It doesn’t surprise me that Obama invited the “Reverend” Sharpton to the White House.

This current summary of the differential press treatment, very similar to the Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman affair, is saddening, but unfortunately not very surprising.

As you imply, this is far more than a case of “Competing narratives” or even “carefully-selected “narratives”. This is outright lying through omission of exculpatory evidence, with the purpose of intentional assassination of Officer Wilson’s character by association, obfuscation and pretense.

What these reporters and the editors at WAPO are doing is not merely despicable, it is evil. The words of the prophet Isaiah apply: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”

The left in its deceit and willingness to justify evil means by the end sought is bringing a grave retribution upon its head.

AlanF,
While some readers are certainly not aware of the deceptions, the illiberal ‘journalists’ constructing such carefully constructed narratives are fully conscious of their deceit, they know exactly what they are doing.

Brown was 18, so any police record he might have is as a juvenile and therefore sealed from public view.

I bet he was really really excited to be going to “college” to learn to become an A/C technician. The “college”, also in Ferguson, was really excited too, to be getting Federal loan monies which Brown would never repay. Ever. But we have all heard Baraq tell us everyone should go to college.

Based on what I have seen and read, I am forced to the conclusion the denizens of Ferguson are pretty disgusting creatures. They should get the police force they want.

Have you all seen the video of Brown’s rap? He wanted to be a thug. I couldn’t believe the article on Wilson. Just about everything said about him could be said about Obama. And to follow this piece up with the fawning “story” on Brown is despicable. They just don’t want anyone to be able to challenge the black victim narrative.

Why are you still commenting about articles that should be left unread. Let them write whatever tickles them as lamestream media dies the death that should have come decades ago. Or at least add other state media, such as Provda (or whatever passes for the Russian state adopted outlet), the BBC, and the French media to keep it from being so provincially statist.

For two reasons. The first is because it gets my goat, and my natural inclination is to write about it.

The second is that even now not everyone is aware of the extent and scope of the press bias and distortion. Regular readers here are not the only ones who come to this site. You never know who might come and find it to be new information.

I think the most infuriating thing to me is how Brown’s friend (can’t be bothered to look up the little goblin’s name) lied. No, not just how he lied, bold-faced – but how the establishment news orgs just lapped it up. It was as if they couldn’t be bothered to check back on him (ohhhh, cooties – having to talk to the local PD and find out that the little goblin had a record.)

Of course, I am also still pretty annoyed that Al Sharpton (no, I will not apply the honorific of Reverend to him) still has a pulpit and a paycheck from MSNBC. The most disgusting, near-illiterate and obvious race-baiting pimp of the late 20th century has got contract with a national news network. Gee – how did THAT happen?

That idea just doesn’t resonate for me, I don’t think they’re that ‘ambitious’. Not that I think that they’re too ethical to consider such a plan and they certainly would eagerly welcome it but… perhaps it’s that I see it as ultimately counter-productive. Society only has so much tolerance for rioting. Sympathies evaporate in the face of mobs raping, killing and looting. Indiscriminate murder of whites, for being white is not going to play well, even with liberals. It’s the ultimate societal ‘mugging’.

Brown is a bully. Anyone who pushes smaller people around like he did in the video – that was not a one-off. That’s what he is like.

But hate to say it my gut is that Wilson is guilty of something in the vicinity of Murder 2 (or whatever level of non-premeditated murder is. Not murder 1, but not manslaughter either. It wasn’t intentional, and it wasn’t an accident. He lost it and started shooting…and – worst case – he may have fired the fatal shots because he realized he had done wrong and needed to bury the evidence.

My thought is based on a video I saw of 4 different people who witnessed it. They were interviewed separately. Except for the friend they had no reason to make anything up, and they did not look like they were making anything up. Their description makes it look like Wilson lost control of his emotions and his professionalism.

The caveat is that something happened at the car. There may be a reason he acted as he did.

We’ll find out at trial, and there will almost certainly be charges and a trial.

What happened in Ferguson was a Lynch Mob, 21st century style, in full voice. No rope but there would have been a body if the “demonstrators” could have found the Cop. I wish someone (some non-PC person) out there had characterized it for what it was.

It’s because its counter productive that it wouldn’t be productive. The hard core left isn’t really interested in ‘social justice’. That’s just a tactic for the rubes and to create social leverage through legislation and supporting regulations. What the hard core left is interested in is power, plain and simple.

Either gradually and duplicitously achieved through deceit. Such as voter fraud and comprehensive amnesty leading to permanent one-party rule, needed to make the necessary Constitutional changes or seizing power through a coup, which fomenting a race war would fall under. But the problem with a coup succeeding in America is gaining the US Military’s support.

I believe that can only happen if a crisis arises that is sufficient cover for the President to declare nationwide martial law. Under martial law, the President can engineer a perfectly legal coup and I find it highly improbable that the left hasn’t realized that the US military would have no legal basis for opposing such a President if they were cunning in going about it.

“My thought is based on a video I saw of 4 different people who witnessed it. They were interviewed separately. Except for the friend they had no reason to make anything up, and they did not look like they were making anything up. Their description makes it look like Wilson lost control of his emotions and his professionalism.” Mike

The friend, Johnson, has already recanted his story and he’s a proven liar. The other three presumably back up Johnson’s story, which makes them liars as well…

The police say they have 12 witnesses who back up Wilson’s account. All of the bullets struck Brown in the front. The last two bullets were fatal and Brown fell just a few feet away from Wilson, which means he was charging Wilson, just as Wilson and those 12 witnesses confirm.

Hmm, fair enough, Neo. At least for you. I’m… pretty sure you are in full-blown reform mode. But it is done on so many… conservative sites. My problem is that it is allowing a dying media to control the intent of the content. Still, if you think you can save a soul, here or there, by rummaging through trash, without it tainting you, go for it.

It’s not counter productive for Sharpton to threaten to incite riots in order to get tribute and ransoms paid to the black community, after skimming the top and bottom off. That’s how they make productive cash. And it’s not an empty threat either, Sharpton has incited blacks to kill people Sharpton has designated against.

” I find it highly improbable that the left hasn’t realized that the US military would have no legal basis for opposing such a President if they were cunning in going about it.”

Legal, schmegal.
The military needs a moral basis for opposing such a Prez. Moral.
With the force reductions of the Clinton years (the “peace dividend”) and the slashing of personnel and equipment under Obama and his minions, plus the purging of the officer corps, we have lost both materiel/personnel quantity and moral quality. The Bush/Rumsfeld era did not offset those deficits. Have we not seen the near-obsequious posturings of the highest ranks? Seen Chuckie Hagel or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs lately? I have.

The mediots are now a full-fledged, freewheeling Lynch Mob. Next step down the ladder — actually chasing down this poor policeman and dragging him to a tree and hanging him. And posing proudly for pictures afterward, with his corpse.

This particular case is the sheer bad luck death of a man the police had taken down (another extremely large black man, known to the Staten Island cops as a career petty criminal — took four of them to get him on the floor).

Sheer bad luck because, unbeknownst to them, the man had asthma and, as it turns out, a heart condition, and he had a heart attack after the takedown.

This, according to the leftwing nutters, is homicide by chokehold, and again they’re baying for the cop’s blood:

Cops in NYC are currently very demoralized; crime is UP 45% since January, thanks to Judge Sheindlin and her ruling that the “stop, question, and frisk” neighborhood policing is illegal. We don’t even see the cruisers come through our neighborhoods any more. And the “squeegee men” are back on the highway, some of them dangerous.

Last week there was another 3rd-floor breaking and entering from the fire escape in my neighborhood. Two doors down, speculators are constructing a condo that has apartments ranging from $17 million to $35 million, on Mulberry Street, right across from John Gotti’s old social club.

We were discussing the possibility of a manufactured race war, which is not equivalent to Sharpton’s graft who is, in the larger scheme of things, the equivalent of an ‘ankle biter’. That in no way is meant to minimize the seriousness of the threat that a rabble rouser like Sharpton represents, but rather keeps in proper perspective, the little weasel.

“The military needs a moral basis for opposing such a Prez. Moral.” Don Carlos

Under martial law, the military opposing a lawfully elected President on ‘moral’ grounds is a formula for a civil war. To avoid a civil war both a President attempting a coup and a military refusing the orders of a lawfully elected President have to have a firm legal basis. The rule of law requires lawful legalities, otherwise we have the rule of men and none could withstand ‘the winds’ that would sweep the nation.

Geoffrey Britain :Please do not confuse Mike with facts. He is sure that Wilson did something wrong. Based on???
I would venture a guess that if he were honest with these readers He was also sure Travon was just out for some Skittles and soda when he was set upon by a wannabe cop.
I wonder if he has bothered to read up on the white Italian dude up in MN that came out of his house in his stocking feet and was shot by a Black Policeman on a SWAT team about a week after the Wilson/Brown incident?
Am I sorry Brown was killed? Yes, the loss of any human life is tragic. Am I going to armchair pontificate on what Wilson should or should not do?
I can only say that if I was just slapped hard enough to fracture my eye socket and the 300# Bully was bum rushing back at me, I would have done the same thing. And it simply would be the case that at 165# with facial damage I would fear for my life. And it wouldn’t matter if the thug was Black, White or Green. But then that line of reasoning would be foreign to Mike
Sign me The Other Mike
PS: I suspect the Grand Jury will return a politically correct verdict to charge Wilson just like the MN PD refused to do more than a cursory review of the MN shooting. After all, he was a white victim and a black cop. I wish I could know the facts and background in both cases irrespective of the race of either party.

G.B.: “To avoid a civil war both a President attempting a coup and a military refusing the orders of a lawfully elected President have to have a firm legal basis.”
You may wish to rephrase or even reconsider your statement, G.B., which surely reads “a President attempting a coup….have a firm legal basis.”

A coup is legal? Uhhh, no.
A military refusing the orders of a lawfully elected President must have a “firm legal basis”?? Uhhh, no.
A military pulling a coup? not legal either.

Coup is short for coup d’etat. A blow against the State. Never legal. Cannot be legal.

Avoiding a civil war is not the point either. That was done once, and the then-President is still deemed one of our four greatest for saving the Union and destroying the South. I and others see a civil war as something already under way. It only awaits bullets flying to become full-blown.

They definitely want to make the story bigger, and if it means a few more days of violence, so it goes.

They sink their claws in these kinds of stories because it helps them forward their agenda and the progressive narrative. They stopped being about reporting the news decades ago. No, they got into journalism because they want to “make a difference,” affect change, and “comfort the afflicted, while afflicting the comfortable.” This requires taking sides.

“You’re dealing with white cops, and they don’t know how to address black people,” Epps said. “The straw that broke the camel’s back, an officer shot at a female. She was stopped for a traffic violation. She had a child in the back [of the] car and was probably worried about getting locked up. And this officer chased her down Highway 70, past city limits, and took a shot at her. Just ridiculous.”…

I wonder why no blacks talk about the woman who got shot by the DC police when she took off in her car after ramming into the white house fence???? She had a kid in the car, and was just trying to see Obama……

Forgive my lack of clarity, I assumed that you would perceive the obvious or are you being purposely obtuse?

I stand by my statement exactly as written.

Of course a coup is technically illegal. It may under certain conditions however be absolutely necessary.

A President attempting a coup to seize illegal powers, would be stupid to admit to it being a coup, of course they would deceitfully label it as justified restoration and protection of the Constitution. All while using the power of the Presidency to change it. Just in fact what Obama has already done, though arguably not permanently.

“A military refusing the orders of a lawfully elected President must have a “firm legal basis”??

Uhhh, yes… otherwise its mutiny and treason. The military can refuse unlawful orders but to be unlawful they MUST be illegal orders. Thus the necessity for a ‘firm legal basis’ for the military refusing the orders of a lawfully elected President.

A blow against the State can never be legal? Cannot be legal?

Then you disagree with, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” and with, “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.” Abraham Lincoln

I would remind you that if a repressive government engages in tyranny that a ‘coup’ may well be the only way to remove that government and will certainly be less violent than a civil war.

We are engaged in a cultural civil war. That is NOT the same thing as an actual civil war where bullets fly between former countrymen.

GB: you are co-mingling Natural Law with small-L law. You of course know that Natural Law is not what is legally, lawfully practiced anywhere on the planet, including the USA.

I suggest it is you who are being a tad obtuse. You said, “The military can refuse unlawful orders but to be unlawful they MUST be illegal orders.”
Good grief, a tautology: “to be unlawful they MUST be illegal”, and worse, beside the point. A military clearly does not require an illegal order in order to conduct a legal coup. Coups are not legal. Check the Constitution, the basis for all our laws, and tell me if a legal coup is enshrined therein, or even found in a penumbra.

We usually hold the same views, so I do not understand your moot court approach here.

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.” Abraham Lincoln

The Confederacy did just what Abe declared their SACRED RIGHT, but it turns out it lacked “having the power,” and so, with Grant and Sherman, he butchered the South for it.

The Confederacy did just what Abe declared their SACRED RIGHT, but it turns out it lacked “having the power,” and so, with Grant and Sherman, he butchered the South for it.

There they go again, with that old Democrat blood libel. The Democrats destroyed the South, morally, intellectually, and spiritually, way before 1860. Finding a way to blame it on Lincoln and his confederates of all people, is rich, as usual for Democrat stories.

As for fomenting a race war and then profiting off of it, I don’t see why people who foment riots and profit off of it lack the power to do so or lack the motivation. Villains have always started small, as with the Rhineland, and then success breeds more success and confidence.

Just quoting and using historical facts. If you don’t think the South was butchered demographically, economically and politically, you lack some facts. I am not making a right/wrong case here, just contrasting Abe’s words with his actions. It was not I who trotted out the Lincoln quote either. I would not use it to make my case, any case, because it is hollow.

“[Wilson] played junior varsity hockey for the West [High School] Warriors but wasn’t a standout.”

and this,

“Brown’s family angrily denounced that video [that actually showed Brown pushing a clerk against a display case and then physically hovering over the much smaller clerk in an obvious act of physical intimidation] as character assassination.

“They’ve portrayed Brown as ‘a gentle giant,’ who liked to post photos on his Facebook page of himself with young relatives, a kid who tried football his sophomore year but abandoned the idea before his first game, fearing he might hurt someone.”

So Wilson is a failed (and presumptively frustrated) athlete while Brown is so gentle he wouldn’t even play football.

If you don’t think the South was butchered demographically, economically and politically, you lack some facts.

I just said blaming it on Lincoln was a Democrat propaganda trick from the old days.

Talking about facts after that, is meaningless. The source of the problem needs to be filtered first, before people can figure out the damage.

The South had a military exemption for plantation owners. Enough of them survived, intentionally so due to Sherman’s non extermination policies, after the war to reform their political plantation power dynamics. The only demographic that got devastated were the slave fodder troops used in the war, that weren’t exempt either because they didn’t own property/slaves, they volunteered to fight (vs the slave owners who opted out of fighting in a war they started), or they died due to a lack of food/shelter from the KKK and Democrat obstruction of Union/Republican efforts at Reconstruction.

However you cut it, the facts point to one cause of the disaster in the South before, during, and after the US Civil War I.

So no, the Democrat propaganda about the Democrats being butchered politically is wrong. Economically, it is half wrong. Demographically, it is lying via omission.

About Me

Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely leaving the fold and becoming that dread thing: a neocon. Read More >>